Attorney General Scott Pruitt this week joined 37 states and the District of Columbia in a $7 million settlement with Internet giant Google over its collection of data from unsecured wireless networks nationwide while taking photographs for its Street View service from 2008 to March 2010.

Google's Street View cars were equipped with antennae and open-source software that the company acknowledged collected network identification information for use in future geolocation services. Google also collected and stored data frames and other “payload data” being transmitted over those unsecured business and personal wireless networks.

Pruitt said Google has since disabled or removed equipment and software used to collect the payload data from its Street View vehicles, and agreed not to collect any additional information without notice and consent.